to be completely baffled as to why people care about spelling mistakes

[fairydoll]

Title says it all.It is totally beyond me why anyone cares about other people's spelling mistakes.
Why do they care? What does it say about that person?

dunno

Fuck all else to do?

Little Hitlers?

Spent too long correcting their children?

Combo of above?

I don't care about other people's but my own piss me off. Years of old fashioned schooling.

My teachers did not tolerate spelling mistakes when I was at school. So I suppose that attitude has been drummed into me (also by my mum). I do cringe when I see (certain) spelling mistakes but I would never point it out and so nobody actually knows that I am cringing. So I think that's OK as I am not bothering anyone!

Some care, some don't.

That's why there is Pedants' Corner, where those who want to talk about it can gather, and which can be easily hidden by those who don't want to see it.

It is unreasonable to post about spellings or grammar in other forums.

I can only speak for myself (and you watch, there will be a typo in this) but if I'm reading something with a spelling mistake it's as annoying as listening to a CD that jumps. How much I 'care' depends on where the mistake occurs and in what context. A newspaper riddled with spelling mistakes is sloppy. A formal letter with mistakes would be offensive. A message board contribution - not so important. A message board contribution from someone getting on their high horse about how education standards have slipped since they were a lad, however.... fair game!!

Depends on the context. On a social media site, doesn't matter as long as people understand what you're trying to say.

In a job application where written communication skills are important, vital.

Ditto work emails and reports - poor spelling and grammar (as opposed to the occasional typo) doesn't reflect well on the sender if they're in a professional role.

delusions of granduer?

Spelling mistakes don´t bother me-I think it can often be down to hitting the wrong key.

I find it more annoying when homophones are mixed up.

I've no idea either. I suppose they think a person who can't spell or doesn't have great grammer is lazy.

I am assuming they wouldn't be so angry if they thought the person making the mistakes was just unable to spell or had some learnign disorder ,bacuase that would make then a really unpleasant person.

Since I have watched my ds struggle to come to grips with the English language (for some people it is a nightmare langauge it is to learn to read and spell) I am beginning to think that it should be made a phonetic language and bugger all the bumpf about it being a beautiful, great, flexible language.

Language is supposed to facililitate communication and English is so difficult to decode for a sizable minority of people (unlike other phonetic languages) that I cannot be bothered to worry about some poor spelling.

Typos, spelling mistakes, and just writing the wrong word are generally pretty easy to tell apart.

Completely agree with you OP. It's important in business and in education and, for some people (including me) in day to day life.

On a chatboard, it's never important. Those who constantly pick on others' posts show themselves up.

We care because spelling mistakes can lead to misunderstandings, misinterpretations and are just plain annoyingly wrong. The worst ones are the misuse of the apostrophe and there instead of their.
Somebody who can spell well and use grammar correctly has a head start in making their point.
There are lots of words in English which sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings eg: pair, pare, pear. If you use the wrong spelling, it makes a nonsense of the sentence.
I'm not a pedant (honest), everyone makes spelling mistakes, but it is important to want to get it right.

I don't care at all about others spelling/grammar etc ,but I sometime wish MN had an edit button for when I've made a glaring mistake

Because they are nobby twats with a superiority complex

I particularly enjoy a snooty 'My spelling and grammar is considerably better than yours' thread in which the pedants point out the spelling and grammar mistakes of the other pedants.

It doesn't make nonsense of the sentence though,the majority of posters would know what the poster meant

It bothers me immensely.

But I sit on my hands and run to pedants' corner to scream into a pillow because, although I care about grammar, I also care about manners.

usual, you never make mistakes. Ever.

As long as I can understand the point, I really don't care about spelling errors. It's a chat forum not a school essay. I think people who get upset about such things have missed their calling and should sign up to do a PGCE right away.

My favorite typo is

So true

I never pick up on anyone's mistakes, but I must admit it jars with me. I liken it to being called the wrong name.

So, if your name is Laura and someone keeps calling you Lauren. You know they mean you, and it's not actually hurting anyone, but it is really annoying.

Not annoying enough to criticise others for it, though.

I make loads of mistakes tethers ,especially on drunk Friday nights

Sue, I am actually an English teacher, so I guess I must be in the right job.

Bad spelling, Textspeak and mixing up words makes me immediately prejudiced against the poster - there are keyboard, typos, but the inability to actually write a few coherent sentences makes me annoyed!

YANBU !

Some posters correct others in a bid to be helpful I think, whereas others just point it out to be bitchy. Some posters can be a bit sensitive about their spelling/grammar though, so I think it's usually best just to ignore. Unless it's so bad that it makes their post unreadable (which is rare), what's the point in correcting them?

I have to admit though, spelling errors in posters' names make my eyes itch.